51–60 of 95 posts
It's just a normal company trying to offer a better service at higher prices — which is okay — you don't need to slap a startup label on everything.
The medium piece was a great read. Kudos to everyone involved!
Amazing write up, thanks for this. Question though - I always thought hiring movers was a higher-end service that targeted richer people? Most people I know rent a truck or U-haul and get their friends to help move for a case of beer...
How old are you? I think most people find the pool of friends willing to break their back all day for free beer gets pretty small once they're all starting families etc. I hired movers for the first time this year and I'll never go without again. I'm 29 and make a pretty modest professional salary, so it was a big expense for me, but paying a few hundred bucks was well worth it for getting something done in a couple…
In SF I use Delancey Street movers. The experience has always been phenomenal. And they hire ex-cons who are trying to change their lives so it's win-win. Any tips that we give them is tax-deductible and goes towards programs for the employees and their families for outings, etc. Everyone works so hard, and they are extremely efficient, I have had no qualms giving 50% tips to these guys and I've used them 4 times now…
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I don't much care about the semantics of product market fit, but there are a lot of companies - some with astronomical valuations - that sell things at prices that won't sustain the business. These guys could have taken other people's money and done the same thing. "We just need to buy market share until the autonomous moving robots are available!" I applaud them for not doing so. And FWIW I usually find these autops…
This might sound cynical but given the way the conclusion has been phrased, it is most likely they were on path to "autonomous robots" but no VC was interested in their unit economics. Sure, there are companies with astronomical valuations with unsustainable business, but for whatever it is worth they seem to be good at marketing/presenting to VCs too.
I am a Chinese so my family usually have some Chinese contractor do the moving. A couple years ago my family and I bought a home (finally!) and we hired a contractor to come in, after my family and I had packed up everything (since my dad is a jack-of-all-trade kind of a smart man). The contractor paid two Hispanic workers to do most of the heavy-lifting work, but we also helped anyway so we get the move done ASAP. T…
For generous people like your family, you feel happy giving good workers a big tip. It's not just part of the moving cost, but a small good deed. Participating in this is something extra you get for your money. You wouldn't get the same feeling from an included tip, which you can't be sure goes straight to the worker. Presumably if the movers were lazy or rude you would also be glad that you could choose to tip less.
For cheapskates who stiff on the tip regardless of the quality of the service, tips-included just means a higher cost for them.
One of the problems IMHO is that everybody wants a cool and short name like 'apple', without noticing that apple has passed long away the state in what people would identify their trademark name with a grocery. "Fruit means computer" is not something that happens in a day in the mind of customers.
Why to choose a name that does not add clues about what the company is doing (and expect that the customers will learn to fill the gap)? For each sucessfull 'uber' there are decens of other brands that didn't stick. Programmers love add a layer of mystery about what their programs do. Probably to not give much hints to the competition. Graphic designers have also their bible and will say that a name must measure this and be coloured like that, but you as a company have literally a few seconds to grab the customer attention. If the message is unclear or not complete you lost customers.
Starting with something like 'Walnut movers' could look old fashioned but probably will be more efficient.
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You've mentioned it yourself: Many of the people in these systems are likely underpaid. Systemic exploitation is the name of the game for a lot of the base infrastructure in our society. I'm for communities helping each other, but in your moving example you think those workers have health insurance? Why do you have to sneak the tips? I bet the bus drivers make a good amount of money though.
Why in the US do you have to rely on the employer to provide health insurance? So weird.
Perhaps a digression, but how does something like compare with individual movers like "Guy with a Van", "Girl with a Van", "Brothers with Van" type single person operation? Quite a few of them seem to be in business for many years and seemingly doing well enough to not close shop. What are they doing different to stay profitable? Source: https://www.google.com/search?q=guy+with+a+van
Operating locally. I've made a couple of moves with these type of movers. They were local moves and that was the first question when I called them. It was $X an hour, for 2 people, with a minimum number of hours. Typically, they don't pack your items, either. They load, drive, and unload the truck. They may or may not disassemble furniture. For example, on several local moves, my dining room table was never disassemb…
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He mentions that in the article. I'll quote the relavant section at the end, but my when money is no object, you usually go by recommendation of friends. At that high of a premium, would you go to a team with good marketing copy, or somebody who has already moved your equally rich friend with superlative service? FTA: We considered our second option more seriously. High-end customers understood our value proposition,…
Hahahaha So they wanted to claim to offer a high-quality product, but don't think they can actually do that. Startup culture is so terrible.
Consider it the difference between an iPhone and a 24 caret gold plated iPhone elite (which apparently exists)
In short: “What we found was that while many people complain about their moving companies, even the highest income consumers would not pay for a better service. Our mistake was conflating desire for a better product with desire to pay more for a better product”
The second time, about five years ago, my new company was paying to move us about 200mi, my wife was pregnant with our first child, and I needed to start ASAP so a company was paid nearly $12K to pack and move everything. What a freaking nightmare! Things were lost or broken in inconceivable ways and for no real good reason they couldn’t unload on Friday and don’t unload on weekends so we got to spend the better part of 5 days with an empty house when we’d been lead to believe we’d be up and unloaded the next day. And the waste! They used an INCREDIBLE amount of packing/filler material and so much of our shit still broke!
This last time, about a year ago, we just did it ourselves. The last experience was so bad we decided to do it ourselves with a two week old baby and two more kids under 4. Our awesome neighbors helped, my mom drove up grabbed the older kids and they spent the night with her (she lives where we moved back to), my sister in law and her fiancé helped because they lived in the city we were leaving, it was a village effort. It was stressful and tiring, but it was also a chance to really bond with friends and family.
We filled the biggest Uhaul truck with their biggest trailer, and two cars and were at our new house and un-packed in 24 hours. We had literally nothing break.
I would write a check to a moving company for $12K or more if I knew they were going to make my life easier. I’d absolutely rather someone else did all the work, but all I’ve experienced and heard about is massive ripoffs, horrible customer service, and generally unpleasant experiences.
I think in total we spent about $1,500 on packing material and a truck and trailer rental. So we were 1/10 the cost for 5x the efficiency in the moving effort.